Improvement in desks



G. H. PHILLIPS.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE H. PHILLIPS,

OF OELWEIN, IOWA.

IMPROVEMENT IN DESKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 219,013, dated August26, 1879; application filed April 16, 1879.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Gno. H. PHILLIPS, of

oelwein, in the county ofFayette and State of Iowa, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Combined Book Rack and Desk; andI do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which formpart of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of adesk containing my invention; and Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are detail views ofparts thereof. i The object of my invention is to providea desk for theuse of persons who have occasion to refer often to books and which shallcontain a series of shelves for the books, easily revolved so as tobring any particular volume within reach of the hand Without rising fromthe desk; and to that end 1 provide the interior of a desk with a seriesof horizontal shelves, pivoted at each end to a disk or wheel, which isrevolved ,to bring the shelf containing any particular work to thefront, where it may be readily reached without rising.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my inventionappertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe itsconstruction and operation.

A represents the frame, having a hinged front, B, and a writing leaf ortable, 6, extending along the front of the desk. D is a shaft, providedat each end with a disk or wheel, 0, and journaled in suitable bearingsE E, which may be immovably secured to the inner sides of the frame A.The inner sides of the disks 0 O are furnished with a series of pins, 00, located near the periphery of the disks, and equidistant from eachother. F F repre sent the shelves, the ends of which are provided withbearings f f, of inverted-U shape, as seen in Fig. 2, which are hungupon the pins 0 c, and the shelves, being free to swing, are thus alwaysin an upright position as the wheels 0 are revolved. The outer side ofone of the disks I also provide with a series of pins, t i,- and twosprings, G G, secured to one of the inner ends of thecase, bear inopposite directions against these pins, preventing the revolving rackfrom moving backward or forreference, the lever H is raised till itstrikes one of the pins i, passing between the lower spring G and thedisk 0, and its thickness being greater than the length of the pin 43,the spring is released, and the short arm h having engaged with one ofthe notches a a, the lever is pulled down, revolving the rack forwardtill the spring engages with another pin, and the operation is repeatedtill the rack con taining the desired volume is brought within reach ofthe hand.

If desired, the ends of the racks or shelves .F may be provided withsmall cases, divided into compartments, for holding paper, envelopes,&c.

The ends of the case are provided with two small blocks, I, the topedges of which are beveled outward, and on these blocks rest thebearings E, whose lower edges are correspondingly beveled, and a screwthrough the end of the frame secures them from slipping from theirplace.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

The disks 0 0, provided with notches a a and pins i i, in combinationwith revolving shelves F F, lever H, pivoted arm h, and springs G G, allconstructed and arranged to operate substantially as and for thepurposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I affix my signaturein presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE HOWARD PHILLIPS.

,Witnesses:

HENRY G. APPLEGATE, G. W. JAMISON-

